Category Archives: Hanging with the Peeps

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Friendliest Town on the Eastern Shore

Salisbury, Maryland

I went to D.C. this weekend and was met with the best weather I could have asked for. Sunny and warm. Warm for me anyway. I could wear my coat or not and still be comfortable.

Hung out with Nicole, Ruth, and a couple of Ruth’s friends. But mostly wandered around seeing the classic D.C. stuff.

My library from Thursday and Friday was great and they had birds that added to the atmosphere. I told them I had heard of library cats, but never birds. They couldn’t believe a library would have a cat and I looked at them quizzically and said, ” but you have birds?” They thought it was hilarious. Great group. I thought is was funny that two of the birds were love birds, but they were in separate cages. The woman who took me over to introduce me to the birds told me not to get too close because they were mean as hell. I said I didn’t think they were so much in love then. Again, she thought that was really funny. So who wouldn’t like hanging out in a place where people are nice and they think you’re witty. Then as I was coming back on the second day, I noticed the sign welcoming people to the town.
It all made sense.
...and still in the running.

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Birthday Girl

So I’m 27 today. Wow. I feel so much older than that. Especially in the last two years. I remember when I started this job and I would be reading on the plane, people would always ask me if the book was for school and if I was on vacation. Now nobody even cards me when I order drinks. Argh.

Yesterday I had a great day. Brenda and I arrived in Bend Oregon and roamed the streets. What a great town! We had an amazing dinner at Merenda downtown. We shared Fire Roasted Mussels, an amazing veggie platter with acorn squash and brown butter, and a giant crab that was cooked in a way I’ve never had. SO GOOD! We shared a bottle of wine and some dessert as well. Really pampered myself, pre-birthday. Then moved on to Fiddy’s which was a total dive with local appeal, then on to the Winterfest where we relaxed in a Jazz and Java tent on this couch they had dragged in there. Then stumbled upon a martini bar where we really squatted for quite a while. A great time.

Today Brenda and Erin took me to the Deschutes Brewery which was great but we weren’t hungry enough for all the food we ordered. They also gave me bath salt, a barnes and noble gift card and two french translation and phrases books for my trip to Europe. I felt so special. I haven’t really celebrated my birthday in years so this was really nice. I can’t believe they got me gifts. Way too nice especially since I’ve been talking their ears off the last week and a half. They’ve got to be sick of me. 🙂

Thank you to everyone who called or e-mailed or gave me a shout out in their blog today. I’ve never felt so loved! Wow!

Now back to our regularly scheduled program.

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My Best Gal

Leah is here with me. She’s the one who wrote that I was a dork. I have to concur. If you read the comments on KB’s site, you’ll see why. We sweet-talked her into doing a sweep for a librarian and told her she could share my room for doing it. She currently has a hotel in Walla Walla, but the sweep was closer to Baker City where we are.
menage a trois avec le lapin jaune

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Movie Lists

First off, check out my MOVIE LISTS on the left. Click the links and browse the crappy movies I’ve watched this year. Then feel free to make fun of me and trash my choices. Just know that I haven’t seen any other movies except what’s listed so I may be missing some amazing ones.

Where am I these days? Oregon. Baker City. Nestled in the hills. Kind of cute. I can just see me with my kids in the future as an old mom during a road trip through here, boring them with the tales of my life. Anywho.

Getting amped to go to London and Paris next week. It hasn’t totally sunk in. I’m still thinking of it as just another trip. But here and there I have moments where I remember this is not for work and I’ll have total free time. Very cool. Would love tips on what to do or see.

I’m wacthing the Osbournes right now. In the words of Erin Hawk, I heart The Osbournes. I just have a soft spot in my heart for Ozzy and Sharon. Kelly is throwing little temper tamptrums on this episode and all I can think is how much she is going to hate these episodes when she gets older. They showed an old documentary on the family from about 8 years ago. It was really cute. The kids were still sweet and Ozzy was a bit more coherent. But the patterns he had then are still true. I loved it. I’m pathetic.

Had a great dinner in the room with Brenda and Erin after The State of the Union. Here we are eager to eat:
Room Service...life's little pleasures

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Music and Great Company

Bought two new albums today:
“Africans in America: America’s Journey Through Slavery” which is an amazing audio accompaniment to the PBS special. The music is compiled by Bernice Johnson Reagon and her daughter Toshi Reagon. Pretty amazing. Check it out.
“Hem: rabbit songs” which reminds me a bit of “Voices on the Verge,” which I am uncontrollably addicted to.

Went to Goldy’s today and ate the scrumptious breakfast I had dreamed about all week. Here’s a picture of Brenda and me at the restaurant. Only Erin, Brenda, and I know what’s in the camera case. 🙂

what you got there, girly?

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Amateur Director

Whew! What a week. The video went extremely well considering how frustrated I was with it and how much I wanted to keep fixing it. At about 5:30am I finally just curled up in Kris’ bed and surrendered to the video as is (Kris was on the couch, zonked out by 11pm due to a hard day of travel that started at 3am). I must say, Kris has one of the most comfortable beds around, and I’m pretty in love with my own bed, so that says a lot. Still, his bed was not comfortable enough to make my few hours of sleep feel like more. Therefore, I ran on adrenaline for the presentation (during which Kris had to troubleshoot technical difficulties with four laptops and the projector, thank god for him) and got through it fairly well. But now, as we all remember from college, the day after is always harder. Hits you like a brick and you start to see tracers every time something moves in front of you. Who needs drugs? Sleep deprivation is cheaper.

My reward for all my hard work is this very Blog Kris designed for me. Since I wouldn’t let him touch the video and only used him for consulting on my ideas, he kept himself busy with this. You should have seen some of the cool designs he tried out. The night went sort of like this: “Hey Kris, come tell me if you think I should edit this part of the video…” “Hey Katie, come look at this template I’ve created for your blog…” “Hey Kris, do you think this song sounds okay for the video?” “Hey Katie, I’ve completely changed your template now, check this out!” “Hey Kris, I’m going to blow my brains out if I can’t get this to sync up…” “Hey Katie, let me tell you all the wonders of PHP, it’s way cool…” “Hey Kris, everything you are saying to me right now is coming out ‘blah blah blah’ so let’s focus on me, me, me and my video…okay?”

Well, something like that anyway. What a guy. The blow my brains out part comes to you care of Gary, who managed to work that phrase into my repertoire.

But what I’ve realized through the 30 odd hours of editing, is that I truly enjoy the whole process and regret that I ever strayed from the hobby. I remember in college I tried to get a job right away in the video productions department (not sure what they were really called, but that’s the side of it I wanted to work in) and the guy said he would love to have me since I had editing experience from high school, but due to the fact I was NOT on work-study, he couldn’t hire me. So we all know what job that sent me to. A sweet little local video store. And now look where I am. Well, okay. I guess the video store didn’t have any effect on my life in a negative way, but just think what path I may have followed, had I only been given the opportunity to fuel my interests and build some skills. Hell, I could be a female David Lynch by now. Or at least doing wedding videos on the side (ick.)

So this is my first real blog and I hope it was interesting for you. I’m off to pick up my friend and former co-worker Aaron Smith at the airport. He’s flying in from Maine because he desperately missed Seattle, as well he should. And as odds would have it, my sister Maddy is flying in on the same connection flight through Atlanta, so I get to do two favors in one easy shot. I love it.

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Videos and Blogs -Sleep

Kris and I spent all night working on a video. Well, really I spent all night on it; all he did was work on my template, which I guess gave him a multitude of problems (what’s this about CSS acting all funny?) He has to teach a journaling class in the morning, and he should be working on that, but instead he slaves away for me. Ah, the joys of having geeky friends. Tomorrow we give our big presentation, which I’m very nervous about. Yikes.